Games' Afoot
Hi All!Adam Shapiro delivers a cute Tuesday puzzle which I find impressive since his 1st LAT was ~6mo ago (17 DEC 2025). I enjoyed the fresh clues for pedestrian fill and the new fill I've not seen before. Well done Adam.
Point of order - I can't figure out if Adam is related to NPR's Ari or not. If anyone knows better...
16. Disc-tossing team sport: ULTIMATE FRISBEE.
 | |
| Ultimate Frisbee | The Game of Life |
23. Contest played on a star-shaped board: CHINESE CHECKERS.
 |
 |
| Chinese Checkers | Chess |
41. Pool hall activity: POCKET BILLIARDS.
|  |
| Pocket Billiards Table | Poker |
54. Nintendo player's side quest, or what the circled letters of 16-, 23-, and 41-Across create: GAME WITHIN A GAME. All I can come up w/ in the reveal is the NAME Game.
So, if you're not pickin' up what Adam's putting down... A side quest is a mini-adventure for your avatar to gain coin, information, or skills within the wider scope of the game #DnD. Ergo, a game within a game - exactly what Adam found in the spanners. Let's explore the rest of the grid.
Across:
1. Voting faction: BLOC.5. Botanical transplant: GRAFT. All you wanted to know.
10. Post that's bigger than a gig: JOB. I saw "bigger" and "gig." My first two thoughts, "Tera" & "Peta," were too long.
13. Like chocolate lava cake: RICH.
14. "Folklore" music artist Swift: TAYLOR.
15. "__ seen worse": I'VE.
I've had worse...
16. [See: Theme]
19. "Aw, so sweet!": TOO CUTE.
20. Like elevator music: AMBIENT.
21. Chicken __ king: ALA.
22. Actor Cariou: LEN.
 |
| Len's Wikipedia Page |
23. [See: Theme]
32. Ascends: RISES.
33. South African language with click consonants: XHOSA. I knew the answer but not the spelling.
Trevor Noah
34. Tuna roll topper: ROE.
35. Some hazy brews, for short: IPAS.
36. Piano pieces for four hands: DUETS.
37. "You're not wrong": TRUE.
38. 28-Down amenity, maybe: SPA.
39. Ballet class rail: BARRE.
 |
| Degas' Dancers Practicing at the Barre |
40. Plump pet, slangily: CHONK. Chonk: adj. fat in a pleasant way.
41. [See: Theme]
44. __ de la Cit : Notre-Dame home: ILE.
45. Coffee container: URN.
46. Not much: A LITTLE.
50. Spine-tingling artwork?: BACK TAT. Cute. A tattoo on the back would tingle the spine.
54. [See: Theme]
56. Cenozoic __: ERA. The last 66 million years and our current era.
57. Like alpacas: ANDEAN.
58. A bird flying into the house, say: OMEN. So I Googled this... Some say it's good luck others say death soon. I think it means your screen door is broken.
59. Cold War operative: SPY.
 |
| Spy Vs Spy |
60. Agreements: YESES.
61. Bit of headway: DENT. I've made a DENT in this expo - I'm done w/ the acrosses.
Down:
1. Like dry champagne: BRUT.2. Disney girl who teaches Stitch the meaning of ohana: LILO. Ohana is Hawaiian for family. I saw this movie w/ the Girls when they were so little. It's kinda hard to believe they're both in grad school now.
3. Prefix meaning "eight": OCTO.
4. Sequences of tight turns on racecourses: CHICANES. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ A few Googles latter... A chicane is an "S" bend in the road that forces drivers to slow down. They're also used in urban settings to not only slow traffic but also increase the amount of public space. Seems like CHICANEry to me.
 |
| A chicane in Orlando |
5. Frontier departure point?: GATE. Ha! The airline Frontier.
6. Marbled bread: RYE.
7. Italian sports car, briefly: ALFA.
 |
| '86 Alfa Spider |
8. Unshaped: FORMLESS.
9. NYC nabe south of SoHo: TRIBECA. SoHo is SOuth of HOuston Street.
 |
| Yep, there's Tribeca South of SoHo. |
10. Align (with): JIBE. Nice.
11. Roasting appliance: OVEN.
12. Red root vegetable used in some dyes: BEET.
14. Breezy goodbyes: TATAS.
17. Cocktails made with lime, vodka, and ginger beer: MULES.
18. Dishwasher's station: SINK.
23. Like tempura: CRISP.
 |
| Yummers! |
24. River-dwelling mammal that can't swim: HIPPO.
25. Sci-fi writer Asimov: ISAAC.
26. Area far from downtown: EXURB.
27. French darling: CHERI.
 |
| Pepé Le Pew |
28. Tourist's base: HOTEL.
29. __ in judgment: ERROR.
30. Tournament division: ROUND.
31. Tries to find: SEEKS.
36. NBC news show since 1992: DATE LINE.
37. "What a relief!": THANK GOD.
39. I-495 in Washington, D.C., e.g.: BELTWAY.
40. About, in dates: CIRCA.
42. Toy that may get stuck in a tree: KITE.
 |
| The Kite Eating Tree |
43. Greg Evans comic strip: LUANN.
 |
| A Comic Strip since '85 |
46. Grows older: AGES.
47. In-person fantasy event, casually: LARP. Live Action Role-Playing GAME.
48. "Thinking about it": I MAY.
49. LAX projections: ETDS. Estimated Times of Departure.
50. Lack of objectivity: BIAS.
51. Unlikely to get out of hand: TAME.
52. "Darn straight": AMEN.
53. Sleeping bag spot: TENT.
55. "__ Haw": HEE.
The Grid:
 |
| The Grid |
WO: FRIzBEE
ESPs: Spelling of XHOSA, CHONK
Fav: It's a toss-up - my fav SciFi writer, ISAAC Asimov, or XHOSA just 'cuz I've never seen it in a puzzle before.
Well, do tell - how'd you enjoy Adam's little GAME? RISES to your definition of fun or you just gonna BLOC it out of your mind 'cuz #circles? :-)
Cheers, -T
T-7 days 'till RUSH!
26 comments:
It wasn’t the easiest
puzzle in the world, but the four grid spanners were pretty easy to figure out, which was a help. Also, the theme was obvious from the first, so that was a help, too.
FIR, so I’m happy.
Crossing EXURB and XHOSA on a Tuesday? Never heard/saw either word before today. And CHONK was new to me.
Good morning!
Guess who failed to notice the circles, and failed to get the theme, and failed to read the full reveal clue. Yup. Guilty, as charged. Dash-T's Name Game comment reminded me of this oldie by Shirley Ellis. ("Let's do Chuck!") Learning moments: CHONK and XHOSA, probably soon to be forgotten. This was an interesting outing. Impressive, considering the three themers plus the reveal were all grid-spanners. Thanx, Adam and DashT.
FIR, but step->DENT, lily->LILO, lapse->ERROR, etas->ETDS, and camp->TENT.
ULTIMATE FRISBEE's real name is ULTIMATE. Wouldn't want the lawyers at Wham-O to get their knickers in a wad.
Back when I imbibed, if I had ginger beer I was having a Dark 'n' Stormy. You only have ginger ale? I'll have a beer.
HIPPOS can't swim, but rhinos can. The things one learns from watching Secrets of the Zoo.
Thanks to Adam for the challenging Tuesday puzzle. There must be some reason that my favorite was TATAS, but I can't put my finger on it ((or them.) And thanks to Bayou Tony for another pinch hit. You even got your ALFA CSO!
FIR. This was really crunchy for a Tuesday. And circles to boot. This was more of a Friday presentation in my view. What with chicanes, Xhosa, and chonk, this was almost a Saturday puzzle.
I saw the games in the long answers, and I get the theme, but I'm not impressed.
Overall not an enjoyable puzzle.
Took 7:22 today to solve aGaIN.
I have the same comment as the prior Anonymous at 4:59 a.m.,: exurb crossing xhosa isn't pretty. I've never heard "chonk" or the part of the French city.
The "Nintendo" in the reveal may be hidden clue for the Nintendo Wii.
"game WIthIn a game."
However, Wii is a console, not exactly a game.
Oh joy, circles!
I like how Adam GAMEd the system and had us reading between the lines. I thought it was clever.
"Switch lane CHICANE" was a tagline from my youth referring to slot car racing. On the CHICANE piece of track, the slots squeezed closer together (or sometimes crossed over) so that two cars couldn't pass at the same time without colliding. We had the 1/32 scale Strombecker set which was larger than HO. Hours of fun!
When I read the reviewer's comment for "bigger than a gig" that noted Tera or Peta, I knew it was Mr. T at the wheel and we were in good hands. Thanks for the trip down memory lane with Spy vs.Spy. We'd read MAD magazine while waiting our turns to race slot cars!
I remember the ad jingle for the Switch Lane CHICANE race set. Never had one though. My Santa had limited funds.
Our lovely and talented webmistress has today's USA Today's crossword, Changing Tables.
Good Morning:
The playful theme, fair perps, and the helpful circles certainly qualified this for a Tuesday slot, but the presence of Xhosa, Chonk, Chicanes, and LARP negate those justifications, IMO. I had no trouble with the solve itself but these entries annoyed me and took away the pleasure and enjoyment of an otherwise satisfactory solving experience.
Thanks, Adam, and thanks, Anon T, for the detailed expo and commentary, particularly the illustrations of the themed games.
Have a great day.
FIR, but with effort. I’m not much into GAMES, nor do I like conversational phrases. But I finally got all the games, but forgot to look at the circles. An added cleverness.
CHONK. EXURB, LARP, LUANN, LILO definitely needed perps. I wonder why the IPA is described as hazy. In that corner I also started out with fried for the tempura. The clue for BACK TAT was a good one.
All in all not a pleasant run for me. It didn’t JIBE well with my knowledge base.
A-t, thank you for your nice recap.
By the way, it’s not an added cleverness on my part, 🤣, but on Adam’s part. I thank A-t for pointing the other games out.
TRIBECA stands for the TRIangle (actually a quadrilateral) BElow CAnal street.
"CHINESE" CHECKERS was invented in Germany
Thanks, everyone, for solving the puzzle. In no particular order:
1) Thank you for the kind and insightful review, Tony!
2) AFAIK, no relation to Ari. I'm originally from the UK and moved here in a marital compromise that involved me moving 5,500 miles and my wife a mile and a half. So, if we are related, it's from long time back.
3) Sorry about the vocab for those who don't love new words early week! I originally envisioned this as a Weds/Thu puzzle when gridding. CHONK is one of those words that is just fun to say out loud (at least for me!), so that might be worth remembering for that.
4) @billocohoes Funny you should mention that TRIBECA is actually a quadrilateral. My original submitted clue for that was [NYC neighborhood that is quadrilateral, surprisingly]
5) Speaking of which, big thanks to Patti, Katie, and the team for the excellent job sanding the rough edges off the puzzle and generally making it closer to the Tuesday bucket.
A crunchy Tuesday offering from Adam.
Some fresh enjoyable cluing with a mix of annoying obscure drek.
Ultimate frisbee is built on good sportsmanship. It is self refereed with players calling out their own errors.
The fans have no ref to boo and hiss at.
Thanks for the detailed recap -T
I did the exact same thing, except I guessed SBURB instead of EXURB (I had misspelled Chinese). I always appreciate when I read a comment and realize I'm not the only one to make a mistake. Also, thought the puzzle was more like a Thursday. Also, want to mention that I appreciate the circles.
Hola! the only GAME I've played is CHINESE CHECKERS though I'm familiar with FRISBEE. and XHOSA is way out of my wheelhouse.
Thanks to Adam Shapiro for introducing me to XHOSA; I'm sure I would never have encountered it otherwise.
Our high school botany class once did a GRAFT as an experiment though I don't recall what plants we used.
The only JOB I've ever had is teaching though as a teenager I did some babysitting.
I like to read LUANN and usually I watch DATELINE.
Thank you, -T for filling in the details. Have a lovely day, everyone!
Liked this puzzle, and "chonk" both saying and learning. Thanks
Delightful Tuesday puzzle, many thanks, Adam. And thanks, as always, for your helpful commentary and pictures, Tony--I always appreciate those too.
So, did Taylor's JOB working on that voting BLOC make her RICH? Hopefully not because she was TOO CUTE to do anything else, like playing CHINESE CHECKERS or POCKET BILLIARDS. We know she'd rather warm up BEETS in the OVEN to feed to the MULES or to that sweet HIPPO. But she has now gotten another JOB working at that downtown HOTEL, where she inevitably found her CHERI on the DATE LINE, with whom she fell in love while they were having a wonderful time playing and dancing DUETS. This apparently ended them up saying THANK GOD at the altar for their beautiful wedding, and for that wonderful GAME WITHIN A GAME that will soon give them A LITTLE pair of twins. Looks as though their life will stay full of happy YESES from now on!
Have a lovely week ahead, everybody.
Creative theme with the GAME WITHIN A GAME
I learned XHOSA as it was the native language of Nelson Mandela - he also was fluent in English from school and Afrikaans he learned during his 27 years of imprisonment as a political prisoner as that was the most common language of the prison staff.
Mandela is widely attributed with the famous quote on the power of language: "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."
I just saw in the news that the woman who voiced LILO in the original animated movie , Daveigh Chase, died of meningitis after having a debilitated immune system from longstanding drug addiction at 35 - sadly the fate of many child actors.
Thanks Tony for blogging and Adam for the puzzle
Musings
-Not being immune to learning, I was happy to suss out CHICANES, CHONK, LARP and XHOSA
-Grandma Opal had only two games in her house – CHINESE CHECKERS and a Slinky
-I love the story of the derivation of the name FRISBEE for that flying disc
-I spent 6 summers of my life crawling up and down rows GRAFTING (we called it budding) trees
-A BACK TAT variation is a tramp stamp
-CHICANES around here are called round-abouts
-BEETS seem to be a “love ‘em or hate ‘em” item. I’m in the former camp.
-The ABC nighttime news show Nightline started with the 1979 hostage taking by the Iranians
-Trees on our course don’t eat KITES but they owe me few golf balls
-As Omaha progesses rapidly west, our town is becoming an EXURB
-Thanks for the info, Adam. I had to look up AFAIK :-)
Clever puzzle, Adam -- thanks for that, and for visiting the blog! Maybe it was a little tough for Tuesday. I DNK CHICANES, LARP, or even LEN, but they filled with perps. I knew there were clicking sounds in African languages, but DNK the name XHOSA. Glad to learn it.
Dash-T wrote a wonderful review. Thanks for the video of Trevor Noah speaking XHOSA! I also love your interpretation of the bird 🐦 in the house omen.
Thanks to Adam for his very clever puzzle and for posting on The Corner! I had a 1-box FIW, guessing a "B" for the "X". FAVs: LUANN, JOB clue, and BEETS. I recently learned that HIPPOs take fairly long naps underwater.
CHICANES was a learning moment.
Thanks to -T for the fun tour! The Peanuts comic was a must. Agree about the OMEN. CSO to you with ALPHA.
A note to the regulars.... I've been AWOL more than usual because DH & I moved to Hawaii. It's fair to say that my life is currently in complete disarray. Additionally, I am now 6 hours behind EDT. I know that many of you do check for late posts from the previous day but I wonder how this time difference will affect things....
I hope you love your new abode when you get settled in.
I had the same thought about TATAS.
Clever CW, clever theme, but I'm glad to see I wasn't the only person that thought Friday arrived on a Tuesday this week. I did eventually FWH: needed to go online and use red-letter help. 11 names, DNK 5, along with several other fills, like CHONK. I did get the clever theme, but would not have w/o the circles.
Thanx for the very clever CW, AS. I just wish it had been published on a Friday. Glad to hear you too thought it should have been published later in the week. Also, thanx for stopping by at the Corner.
Thanx too to -T for the terrific write-up. I had so much to do today, I'm just now getting to the blog.
Post a Comment